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Unchurched Americans have high expectations that they will have sex on Valentine's Day. Lutherans, Presbyterians and other mainline Protestants? Not so much....

WASHINGTON (RNS) The National Council of Churches is moving its headquarters from the historic "God Box" in New York City to Washington, a change that the cash-strapped ecumenical group predicts wi...

The House Wednesday (Feb. 13) overwhelmingly passed a bill to allow places of worship to receive federal aid to repair their buildings damaged during Hurricane Sandy....

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Addressing church leaders for one of the last times of his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday (Feb....

LOS ANGELES (RNS) After the release of damning sex abuse documents that prompted a rare public rebuke from the current archbishop of Los Angeles, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony again finds himself i...

WILMINGTON, N.C. (RNS) The bios of the musicians who make up the band Micah's Rule read like many Christian artists....

The church of my childhood paid no attention to Lent. The season's words sounded too mystical to us, too strange and too Catholic.

Anyone who is familiar with Star Trek knows about the Borg, a seemingly soulless race of cyborgs. The Borg’s main task is to assimilate other species and bring them into the Collective. Science fiction geeks everywhere know the Borg’s catchphrase: “Resistance is futile.” Resistance is futile. Jesus is sitting around talking to a crowd when some Pharisees come by. Looking agitated, they make their way to Jesus.

Recently I did something for the first time: I attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC. Held annually since 1953, the breakfast is sponsored by the Fellowship (sometimes called “the Family”), a shadowy organization with connections especially to conservative members of Congress. I went with my crap detectors on high alert.

New today from the Century: John Buchanan on growing to appreciate Lent, Bromleigh McCleneghan on guinea pig memoirs, more.

In a guinea pig memoir, the intrepid narrator tries on a practice for a period of time, often a year, in the hope that the project will lead to personal or prophetic insight, renewed hope for the future—and a book deal.

The journals of Merton, Woolf and others encouraged me to see my birthday as a new beginning—and to live my 50th year as a year of jubilee.

For Lent, I’m repenting. And, as a progressive Christian, I’m also reclaiming repentance....

I will be the first to argue that good church music can be old or new, classical or pop or folk or whatever, content dense or repetitive, celebratory or somber. And as I've pointed out before, the best critiques of praise-band music usually come from within that world, not from outside haters. Anyway, this "How to write a worship song (in five minutes or less)" tutorial from Blimey Cow is a heap of fun.

New today from the Century: Stephanie Paulsell on turning 50, David Henson on progressive Christians and repentance, more.

When Chinese leaders lifted the persecution of religion, what was in it for them? Actually, they stood to benefit in many ways.

One week after Justin Welby was confirmed as the next archbishop of Canterbury, a frail Pope Benedict XVI surprised the Christian world February 11 by announcing that he would step down by the end ...

Leaders of the American Baptist Churches USA who serve in ministry to immigrants and refugees welcomed a bipartisan framework unveiled by eight senators who are being called the “gang of eight” for...

New today from the Century: Philip Jenkins on religion in China, Anna Madsen reviews Robin Meyers, more.

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. We had bookend services, one at 8:00 a.m. in the chapel, the other at 7:00 p.m....